318 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA t 
particular-privileges by law? but from its great 
capital mere!?, it is enabled to trade to certain 
A J 
remote parts of the continent, to the exclusion 
of those who do not hold any shares'in it. It 
was formed originally by the merchants of 
Montreal themselves, who wisely considered 
that the trade could be. carried oo to those dis¬ 
tant parts of the continent, inhabited solely by 
Indians, with more security and greater profit, 
if they joined together in a body, than if they 
continued to trade separately. The stock of 
the company was divided into forty shares, and 
as the number of merchants in the town at that 
time was not very great, this arrangement af¬ 
forded an opportunity to every one of them to 
join in the company if he thought proper. At 
present these shares have all fallen into the 
hands of a few persons. 
The company principally carries on its trade- 
by means of the Utawas or Grand River, that 
falls into the St. Lawrence about thirty miles 
above Montreal, and which forms by its con¬ 
fluence y ih that river, Le Lac de Deux 
Montagues et ie Lac St. Louis/’—the lake of 
the two mountains and the Lake of St. Louis ; 
• . 
wherein are several large islands. To convey 
the furs down this river, they make use of ca¬ 
noes, formed of the bark of the birch tree ; some 
of which are upon such a large scale, that 
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